Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Stereotyping... just stop it.

I look at Facebook posts and comments on news articles and I just want to yank someone through the screen and shout, "what is WRONG with you people?"

Is this what social media has done to our society? Has it made it acceptable to snarl and offend and lose every sense of normal decorum? Do the people who troll the Internet and act downright asinine have the guts to do that in real life? In front of living, breathing human beings? Maybe they do. Maybe they truly are horrible grumps who will say or do as they please without a care. Or maybe they find comfort in hiding in basic anonymity behind a computer screen and the evil just spews out uncontrollably?

When did basic societal decency get thrown in the dump because we aren't in person anymore?

The stereotypes.... oh, the stereotypes. Do you want to know a really good way to incite anger and violence among the masses? Take a very small portion of a group of people and apply that personality to "all of 'em".

When the Starbucks red cup fiasco hit social media, I saw hundreds of references to "Christians" who are angered by the solid red cup redesign. Do you know who is angered by this design? One or two or three people who call themselves Christians but who really don't live up to Christian ideals at all. Christianity does not teach us to freak out about the frivolous. It teaches us to be humble, to be peacemakers. To turn a blind eye. Yet the masses on social media are going on about "those crazy Christians" again. Address the issue how it really is - a few people who do not, under any circumstances, represent an entire religious group of people.
We see this time and time again, people pushing stories of "good" cops and "bad" cops in an attempt to prove their own point that "all of 'em" are one way or another. People arguing against #BlackLivesMatter in a see-I-told-you-so kind of way. Posting story after story of "bad" people - again, with that "all of 'em" mentality. Lamenting that Muslims are taking over the world because, you know, "all of 'em" are extremists determined to destroy everything we hold dear.

Social media gave bigotry a loud voice. Thank goodness for unfriending and blocking. I use it well.

Human beings are the most unique species in the universe. Every one of us is different. We have individual minds, bodies, souls, and hearts. There is a lot of good everywhere. There is so much more good in people than you can even fathom. Inevitably, evils exist too, but remember, in no situation - ever - does an evil apply to "all of 'em".